Chris Lake

I am Director of Product Development at Econsultancy, an entrepreneur and a long-term internet fiend.

The 21 most horrific social media facepalms of 2011

2011 has been an interesting year for social media. It started out with various small uprisings in North Africa, with social platforms an apparent catalyst for the full-on revolutions that followed thereafter.

We’ve also seen lots of great social campaigns this year, and many brands are now using the likes of Twitter and Facebook to provide great service to their customers.

However, we also inevitably witnessed a number of foot in mouth incidents, and I thought it would be a good idea to compile them for your viewing pleasure.

I’ve sorted them into four categories: brands, agencies, people and platforms. Pull up a cushion…

by Chris Lake 13 December 2011 16:04pm 43 comments

Revealed: the Econsultancy Innovation Awards 2012 shortlist

Econsultancy’s annual Innovation Awards shines a light on the finest creative thinking across the digital industry. This year more than 450 companies entered the awards, so we’ve been rather busy this past month or so.

After some intense reading we have shortlisted around 150 companies, across 19 categories. There were some very close calls, so commiserations if you didn’t make it through this year. The standard has been higher than ever.

Congratulations to all those who have been shortlisted. We know that innovation is a team game, so if you’ve played a part in any of these projects then you deserve a pat on the back. Or a pub lunch. It’s a Friday, after all.

by Chris Lake 02 December 2011 12:41pm 1 comment

Are you measuring the right social media metrics?

Earlier this week a post on the average clickthrough rates for popular Facebook brand pages reminded me of an article I wrote nearly three years ago, which was all about how to measure social media.

At the time I believed that social media sat somewhere between offline and online, as far as measurement was concerned. Yes, you can measure the hard numbers, but what about the softer metrics? Doesn’t there need to be a little room for interpretation?

Well, I still believe all of that. The key to measuring social media is to track all of the usual ‘hard’ metrics, but it’s also to step back and correlate performance against the major business KPIs. That’s pretty much the key to measuring everything. If it an engagement tactic or marketing campaign doesn't move the needle in terms of sales, satisfaction, loyalty or profit then ultimately what's the point of doing it?

by Chris Lake 18 November 2011 12:55pm 5 comments

How to trend on Twitter: the SapientNitro case study

Earlier today web agency SapientNitro showed the world how easy it is to trend on Twitter.

The company’s method is flawless, and proves how easy it is to generate lots of noise about a brand.

by Chris Lake 15 November 2011 14:15pm 21 comments

The horror: Google now encrypts up to 33% of search referral data

A few weeks ago Google started to encrypt search data for logged in users. This essentially means that website owners will see no keyword data for visitors referred from Google.

We didn’t think too much of it at the time, given that just 0.68% of our visits were affected in the period immediately after this initiative came into play.

However, it seems that things have significantly worsened in November, at least for Econsultancy.

by Chris Lake 11 November 2011 13:09pm 71 comments

20 ways to encourage innovation in your organisation

Innovation is close to our hearts here at Econsultancy. It can be difficult to kickstart new projects and to implement change, but dare to dream and amazing things can happen.

Like many companies we’re not short of good ideas, it’s just that executing them can sometimes be a challenge.

For us this is largely linked to resources and prioritisation, rather than our organisational culture. Other firms have the resources, but lack the gumption to try new things out.

So what can you do to foster a culture of innovation within your company? Last week I asked our Twitter followers to suggest some ideas, and here’s what they recommended…

by Chris Lake 28 October 2011 12:44pm 3 comments

How to optimise headlines using the 65 character rule

I’m currently developing some wireframes as we pave the way for a revamp of this blog later this year. There are lots of things to think about. One of those things is typography. Closely related to that is optimal headline length.

I always try to write headlines that fit on one line, though I don’t always succeed. Nevertheless, short headlines beat longer ones for lots of reasons. As such I’d like to introduce the 65 character rule. Actually it’s 65 or less, to be precise.

Here’s why...

by Chris Lake 27 October 2011 13:00pm 15 comments

60+ key takeaways and soundbites from JUMP 2011

Last Wednesday more than 1,500 marketers descended on Old Billingsgate in London for JUMP, our annual multichannel-focused event.

By the end of the day the consensus was that we’d done a good job. In a nut that means two things:

The speakers were great and shared the right kind of ideas and insight.
The Wi-Fi worked.

I thought I’d share some of the key takeaways from JUMP.

by Chris Lake 18 October 2011 14:40pm 2 comments

How to write an awards entry that stands out

Econsultancy’s Innovation Awards deadline is fast approaching and I thought it would be useful to provide some guidelines on what judges typically look for in an awards entry.

Ultimately it’s about focus, and answering questions in a clear and concise way. It's about accuracy. And it's about standing out.

Here are 15 things to keep in mind when compiling your awards entries…

by Chris Lake 17 October 2011 15:36pm 2 comments

Picture theft and a shameful licensing shakedown: the hideous double standards of UK newspapers

Last month we were contacted by the Newspaper Licensing Agency, which is owned by the UK’s national newspapers. It wanted to sell us a ‘newspaper copyright licence’. The licence would ensure that we become “copyright protected”.

Apparently we need a licence if we share press cuttings internally. It also applies to links shared that include “text extracts to explain what the link is”.

A licence is also required for photocopying newspaper content, scanning and email cuttings, printing from a newspaper’s website, cutting and emailing text from a newspaper website, and putting any cuttings on our website.

Much of this doesn’t apply to our organisation, but we want to make sure that we’re operating in an ethical manner and are keen to abide by the rules.

The issue is that the rules are:

a) flaky

b) self-defeating, and...

c) being set by people who aren’t really in any position to set them.

Let me explain.

by Chris Lake 11 October 2011 13:05pm 5 comments